An Alicorn And A Hacker Walk Into A Bar
by Tactition101
Summary: An insomniac hacker gets sucked into the digital world with a banished princess as his partner.
1. Chapter 1

Story: An Alicorn And A Hacker Walk Into A Bar

Summary: An insomniac hacker gets sucked into the digital world with a banished princess as his partner.

1\. Arrival To The Digital World

Story Start: In A Universe Similar To Our Own/US Pentagon

Daniel Richardson once more walked through the Pentagon's firewalls like he was strolling through Central Park, one of the more competent members of the building's cyber squads taking notes as the insomniac hacker once more pointed out where their weaknesses in cyber security were. Daniel was a human who for some reason only needed an hour of sleep ever since he was young and had damn near perfect memory recall, and the man had taken advantage of that fact ever since he was five. The man knew a dozen languages, had no less than three degrees in cyber tech, another in electrical and mechanical engineering, was proficient in several different martial arts, and could quote entire episodes of several series and a large number of books and movies without fail, and in multiple languages at that.

Thanks to his supposed 'disability' the man was now one of the most sought after consultants when it came to cyber security. Unfortunately for him, his employment was about to be terminated in a way he would never have imagined. Just as he was shifting to another area to once more breach the Pentagon's security, the computer screen suddenly rippled before the monitor stretched up and over the surprised hacker sucking him in before snapping back into place.

The Pentagon member dropped his clipboard in surprise before he face-palmed and said "God Damnit! We told those guys in R&D never to run their Improbability Generator while he was here!"

Scene Change: A MLP Universe, One Thousand Years Before FIM Pilot

Luna yelled in pain as the Elements of Harmony banished her. Her pain only grew as she felt something ripped out of her and banished into the moon she was passing before she shot past the celestial body she commanded and flew through an open portal, not to return to her dimension for a millennium.

Scene Change: A Digimon Universe, Long, Long Before The Chosen Children Arrive

Two portals side by side opened up in the air and a shouting figure appeared from each falling side by side before they hit the ground with heavy thuds. Daniel groaned as he said "God damned R&D developers. I told them messing with that Primus damned Improbability Generator was a mistake." Pushing himself to his feet he groaned as he flexed his spine cracking his back. Looking around, he said "Cartoonish anime like world, unknown if cartoon physics apply." Feeling a weight on his shoulders, he looked over his shoulder and continued "Book bag on my back which wasn't there, given its weight, most likely stocked with supplies, stiffness against my back implies a laptop in a sleeve." Glancing down, he blinked and said "And apparently the Improbability Generator pulled a 'blank flank' My Little Pony filly to here as well. Friendship Is Magic series by the look of her."

Said pony groaned before her eyes snapped open while he spoke and she glared at him as she said **"Who are thou calling blank flank Strange creature?!"**

Daniel rubbed an ear as he continued "Old English way of speaking implying she is from before Friendship is Magic era, and volume implies used to bellowing orders. Words also imply subject used to have a Cutie Mark before today implying she is older than she appears, possible de-aging of physical body highly likely."

" **De-aging?!"** The foal asked in shock, leaping to her feet before stumbling. The foal looked over her body before she blanched and shouted **"Where are mine wings?!"** She suddenly ran a hoof over her head and said **"Mine horn is missing as well! What is the meaning of this?!"**

"Subject claims horn and wings are missing implying she was an Alicorn. Based on coloring this means subject is 99.9 percent likely Princess Luna with her powers either blocked or full-out stripped. Most likely by the Elements of Harmony." That got Luna's attention, but as Daniel put his hands in his pocket's with his thumbs hooking the outside, he paused before pulling an object out of his right pocket. Frowning at the device, he said "Generation 1 Digivice, theory of Subject Luna's powers being stripped by Elements of Harmony replaced with Subject instead being turned into a Digimon, the presence of limbs leading to the most likely assumption of Subject currently at the Rookie stage rather than In-Training. Wings and Horn most likely to return when Subject Digivolves to Champion and Ultimate. Full power most likely returned once Subject reaches Mega."

" **Will thou stop talking about We like a lab experiment and not currently two feet in front of thou?!"** Luna asked with a fierce glare, well, fierce for a little pony that barely reached Daniel's waist at any rate.

Daniel raised an eyebrow at her and said "I'm speaking like this because I have a damn near photographic memory and I'm going to type this up in an electronic file that will document your time with me which the R&D people back in my home universe will no doubt greatly appreciate. Or if we are stuck in this universe, the people who will make studying Digimon a career once humans and Digimon reach the point where they coexist, either one." That made Luna blink in confusion even as Daniel continued "And kindly keep your volume down. If we are in fact in the Digital World which is practically one hundred percent likely at this point, there are a rather large number of Digimon you do not want to be attracting attention from, especially in your diminished state." As if Fate wanted to lend credence to his words, there was a roar in the mid distance before the earth under their feet shuddered like a short mini earthquake, clearly something that was both a rather large and rather heavy figure approaching.

As a second shudder went through the ground, Luna nervously took a step back and said "We thinks we should head in the opposite direction of that sound."

"Way ahead of you sister!" Daniel called over his shoulder from where he had already started to run away.

Luna did a double take before she galloped after him at about half speed. When she drew level with him, she said "We are not thy sibling Strange Creature!"

"It's an expression, you silly filly. And I'm a human, not a Strange Creature. Now less talking, more running. Move your flank!" Daniel said half shouting the last part as his arms went from their up-down piston movements and instead went rigid facing backwards as he leant forward and put all his practice of running at least an hour a day to good use and kicked in the afterburners leaving Luna behind before she too started running at a full gallop.

They ran through the forest for a good half hour, startling quite a few In-Training and Rookie level Digimon who saw them pass by before they reached a cliff with a cave resting in it six feet off the ground. Daniel quickly shot ahead of Luna and jumped, pushing himself up with his arms. He did a quick scan of the cave to make sure it was empty before he jumped down and hoisted Luna in before reentering and walked ten steps in before leaning against the cave side getting his breathing back to normal condition. Beside him Luna also panted, tongue lolling a little as she said "We are the Mistress of Dreams, so why can't We wake up from this one?"

Daniel let out a chuckle at that and said "Sorry princess, I'm afraid your stuck with me for a while yet. Still, for a pony turned Digimon partner, you aren't too bad a choice. I could have been stuck with Pinkie Pie after all."

Luna looked at him in confusion and said "We are afraid We do not know any pony by such name."

Daniel waved his hand in a negligent motion and said "Party pony from a show that starts about a thousand years after you were banished."

"Show? And what did thou mean by partner?" Luna asked with a cocked eye.

"It means that you better hope we make good roommates." Daniel said pulling his book bag off and sitting on the cave floor as he opened the bag. Grinning at what he saw, he said "Jackpot!" Inside was the laptop he had felt along with four super capacity external hard drives he recognized from his home that had a rather sizeable chunk of his media along with a large capacity water container and enough food to last him for a week, and that was counting having a Digimon partner with him.

Pulling out the laptop, he continued "Basically, we're now in a symbiotic relationship. You're the heavy muscle in any engagement with other Digimon while I provide the energy you'll need to Digivolve. The bond between Digimon and Human usually is also one of companionship, the two becoming damn near inseparable over time." As the laptop powered up, he pulled out his Digivice and said "This allows you to go to the next stage of the power ladder faster instantaneously rather than the years or even decades of training it would take. However, that is only a temporary power boost, depending on how long we're here you could reach and stay at the max level completely on your own. Something that I think is quite likely given your banishment is supposed to be a thousand years long. Of course, considering a human's natural life span is measured in decades rather than centuries means that whether or not I'm with you by that time or dead, buried, and turned to dust is another matter."

Daniel said that last part as if he was talking about if it was possible to rain in the next hour but Luna's ears pinned back as she suddenly felt terrified of that prospect. If what this human was saying, they could become as close if not closer than siblings and yet it was entirely possible she would lose him within a century. She wasn't certain she'd be able to handle it if she had to go nine hundred years or more without him before returning to Equestria if he came to be so important to her.

Daniel however didn't see this as he said "Ah, finally. Let's see what you are shall we?" He put the Digivice in a docking port at the top of the laptop screen and the computer scanned Luna. Daniel raised an eyebrow at the species name and said "Ponymon, really? Not very original, is it? Whatever, you've got pretty good attack stats for a Rookie level with your Double Buck attack. Holy Beast type, huh, guess your status as a moon deity had something to do with that." Luna pulled herself together and walked over to look at the screen showing her image on the computer's screen and the stats showed there.

Daniel glanced at the Digivice on the docking port before he picked it up and stared at its screen as he mused to himself "I wonder how hard it is to make this work the first time if you know how the digivolution process works." Closing the lap top and putting it to the side for a moment, he gestured to the center of the cave and said "Luna, I want to try something, can you stand over there, you might get a bit bigger if this works."

"Very well." Luna said eager to grow from the ridiculously small size she currently was. Once she was in place, Daniel focused all of his attention on the Digivice, picturing his energy entering it and from it into Luna to make her digivolve. Silence passed for five minutes before Luna shuffled a foot. But just as she was about to speak, the Digivice lit up a little and she felt a surge of energy for a moment before it dimmed and she and Daniel both sagged, the hacker shaking his head as he said "Man, that feels weird. Okay, I know what I need to do now so one more try." The Digivice immediately lit up again, this time near blazing in its brightness and Luna felt an even bigger surge as she also lit up and she heard herself call out "Ponymon Digivolve to…Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"

When the light show died down, Luna looked herself over as Daniel said "Huh, so that's what a female Pegasusmon looks like." The gold plating was now a dark blue gold instead of yellow gold, the yellow fur and bat wings turned dark blue while the white underside was now black. The wings were a slightly lighter shade of blue as her fur while her tail and mane were a little lighter than that still with what looked like miniature stars in them caused by the flecks of white visible in them. Daniel once more put the Digivice onto the computer and as the information appeared, he said "A Holy Beast Type Armor Digimon that normally evolves through the power of the "Digi mental of Hope." Attacks are as follows: Equis Beam which shoots a beam of holy energy from the forehead, Star Shower which creates outer space inside both wings sending down shooting stars, Golden Noose, which is a combo move with Nefrtimon that traps enemies in circles of light, guess we won't be using that one for a while, Rodeo Kick, which is a powerful blow from your hind legs, Pegas Drop, which is a powerful headbutt that does more damage the higher you are when you start the attack, ooh, it's an exponential power boost, nice, and finally Needle Rain which shoots needle like hair strands from your mane. Very nice attack set."

Luna for some reason felt like preening from her new partner's compliments but she was startled as she was suddenly covered in a light again and shrank back down into a Ponymon, feeling rather drained.

Daniel let out a curse as he sighed and said "Damn it, I was hoping that your former status as an Alicorn meant we'd be able to at least maintain your Champion form for at least a minute from the get go. It's going to take a while before you can make that your default form, never mind your Ultimate and Mega forms."

"That is most disappointing." Luna said with a frown.

"Yeah." Daniel agreed before he sighed and shook his head as he continued "Nothing for it right now though. Let's see what else this baby has for us." Switching gears, Daniel went into the lap tops program library and began looking through it, his eyes flashing from side to side as he scrolled down before he blinked, paused his scrolling, before he moved the cursor up and clicked on a program. Whatever he saw on his screen made him grin like a particular Cheshire cat locked inside an aviary overnight causing Luna a not so small amount of nervousness. A nervousness that only grew when the hacker started cackling in evil delight.

"Daniel, thou art starting to scare Us." Luna said as she took a couple of steps backwards away from him.

Daniel brought his eyes up and said "Oh you have a right to be afraid Luna. In fact, I must insist that you be afraid, be very afraid." Giving a gesture to his laptop, Daniel continued "This laptop has a program that allows me to access this world's digital code, and since I'm a hacker…well, watch and learn."

Looking back down, Daniel made two half fists and pushed his hands together cracking the digits before he put his hands on the keyboard and his fingers _flew_. The tapping of the keys sounded like a machine gun on full-auto as he typed and the world around them shimmered before everything began exploding into pixels further startling Luna, pixels which rapidly rearranged themselves before reverse exploding into shapes very much unlike what they had been before. Ten minutes later, the once bare cave they were in was turned into a bunker that could take multiple nuclear strikes with the inside looking like a suite you'd find at a high dollar hotel.

Daniel closed the laptop with a soft snap and said "There, now we don't have to worry about finding a proper base of operations. We've got proper utilities that run off a geothermal generator below us, enough bunkbed holding bedrooms to hold five human-digimon teams plus our own bedrooms, you'll obviously have your own room since I imagine once Mega is your default form you will be rather big so will require a bed that will take up much of said room, we've got a currently fully stocked kitchen, an MTAC or Multiple Threat Assessment Center, an entertainment room, room where the gravity can be changed for training purpose along with various training modules placed along the room's walls, a fully stocked machine shop with enough resources to build ourselves a whole damn Helicarrier if we need to and just because I felt like it, an arcade with games that are made to be played by both human and equine shaped beings."

Luna stared at her partner in slight awe as she said "Thou made all that with two minutes of button pushing?!"

Daniel grinned at her and said "I am a hacker by trade princess. It's my job to take advantage of digital programs in order to show others how to better protect themselves. In this world, I am the closest thing you can get to a god and still be mortal. It seems fitting that a figure considered a goddess in her world would have someone like me for a partner in this one." Luna nodded at that as Daniel put up the Laptop and said "Come on, I'll give you a tour of the place. I think you'll especially like the view from the observatory balcony I put near the top of the cliff."

END

Author's Notes: And that is done. I really hate the fact that the two chapters I had already written for this story were lost. Daniel was a bit different in the first version and now I have to do all of that research in Chrome Digizoid Armor again for Luna's Mega Form. Special thanks to Magus Neon for correcting my Ye Olde English. (And I probably just pissed him off again with those last three letters. Shrug, oh well.)


	2. Chapter 2

2\. First Year

Story Start: One Week After Arrival To The Digital World

Luna panted from her spot on the floor even as she glared at her opponent. Said opponent merely gave the 'come hither' gesture with his left hand before using said hand to take a spoonful of Frosted Flakes out of the bowl situated on his right. Gritting her teeth, the Rookie forced herself to her feet and rushed towards her enemy, jumping halfway in a manner that brought all four of her powerful hooves up and called out "Double Buck!" Just as she was about to kick her opponent with her powerful legs, her opponent's own right leg snapped up in a wide passing circle and slammed into her side sending her flying until she hit the padded wall of the training room they were in.

Daniel took another bite of his cereal as he said "How many times do I have to tell you Luna? Don't go for straight forward attacks. You are no longer one of the strongest creatures on the planet you currently reside in. Until you at least become Champion you need to come at your opponents at an angle and even then you'll have to fight smart."

"If We had our magic, thou would not be still standing." Luna ground out as she once more worked herself to her hooves.

"Yeah well, you don't, so I am." Daniel said before he tipped the bowl up to his lips and drained the last of the milk in it before putting it on the floor and adopted a fighter's stance as he said "Either way, it's a moot point now that I've finished my cereal. DODGE!"

"Wha-?" Was all Luna got out before Daniel took two leaping strides and swept her legs out from under her then kicked her away in a flowing break dance movement that allowed him to hit the much smaller Rookie. Luna had just enough time to regain her bearings before she heard "I said DODGE!" and yelped as she was sent flying again, this time as Daniel hooked his leg under her barrel and hand spring backflipped sending her into the air before grabbing one of her legs with his hands and spinning around before releasing her spinning form towards the far wall.

Two hours later, Luna was a groaning mass on the floor while Daniel looked none the worse for wear. Tiredly lifting her head up, she said "We couldn't hit you even once, what kind of monster are thou?"

Daniel chuckled and said "I'm a chronic insomniac hacker, that's what." Picking up his discarded bowl one-handed, he walked over and knelt down to wrap his other arm around her and picked her up as he went back to his full height and said "Don't worry, you'll get better once you get used to being so small again. You'll do even better once you reach Champion and can keep it as your default level."

Luna let out a grumble but said nothing more, and she was asleep before Daniel passed through the door of the training room.

Time Skip: One Month Later

Luna grunted as she took one slow step after another, _slowly_ dragging the horse drawn slab of wood that held a five-foot-wide boulder in its center that Daniel had typed into exitance. She had been dragging the darned thing for eighteen laps around the track Daniel had created and she was more than tired. She glanced to the side as Daniel slowly passed her pulling a boulder of the same size by a harness around his chest and her expression fell flat as she said "Are thou serious?"

Daniel shrugged and said "I got tired of watching you drag that thing around the track so I got my own. If we're going to be here as long as I think we are then I can't just be your battery, I need to be able to actually help you in a fight. So, I'm seeing if I can modify my strength bit by bit with my hacking ability. It seems to be working so far if the fact I'm twice as strong as before now is any indication. Now less talking, more pulling."

Luna sighed but went with the order. She still had seven laps to go after all.

Time Skip: The Next Month

Luna once more stretched out her new wings with a sigh of contentment. This had been the first time since their first day in this world that Daniel had actually allowed her to digivolve, and they were in a clearing in order to take advantage of her wings. Two months and a week of Tartarus on Equis training all cumulated into her not immediately dedigivolving once her partner stopped sending his energy into his Digivice. They were already going on half an hour and still strong-

As if Fate itself was proving its trolling tendencies at that thought, Luna was surrounded in white light and shrank back down into her Rookie stage causing the former Alicorn to sigh and mutter "Darn it."

"Twenty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds, not bad, not bad at all. If this is the result of just two months training, then we should have you able to go Champion by yourself and able to maintain it for a few days within the year." Daniel said looking away from his stop watch and towards her.

"One can only hope, Daniel." Luna said even as her face attempted to pout though her hold on her emotions merely had her lips briefly twitching once.

"Hm, well, nothing to it but to get back to training." Daniel said before there was a roar as a Gorillamon came charging into the clearing towards them. Daniel sighed as his Digivice lit up and said "And look who just volunteered to help. Get'm Luna!"

"Gladly!" Luna said as her once more Champion form rushed the gorilla, an eager light in her eyes.

Five minutes later, the Gorillamon finally had enough of being used for testing out Luna's new attacks and ran out of the clearing, Luna throwing taunts at its retreating back even as she dedigivolved now that the fight was over. Daniel meanwhile had his laptop up looking at the various readings he had gotten during the fight, already thinking about the best ways to train Luna in her attacks when they got to training her Champion form.

Time Skip: Six Months After Arrival

"Be gone foul insect, the sight of thou disgusts Us!" Luna said as she slammed an Equis Beam into a Snimon sending it rocketing back a good couple of miles. Whether that was before or after the bug regained control of its flight and flew away she neither knew nor cared. Letting out a snort, she glanced up at the tallest tree of the rather unique forest whose population all only had branches on one small side, about ten degrees of a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle, all pointed South by South-West for some reason. Positioned twenty feet from the top on the highest branch that would hold him, Daniel was typing at his computer which was connected via Ethernet cable to a device that wouldn't look out of place serving as a ship's radar. "Are thou almost done Daniel?" Luna asked as her tail swished in impatience.

"One more minute to finish synchronization with the rest of the scanners and do final systems check Luna." Daniel said even as he pulled a futuristic looking pistol out of its holster on his right hip and shot a charging Flymon headed for him in the head with a red bolt of energy, the giant bug not even having time to shriek out in fear as it disintegrated, its data rapidly fleeing to Primary Village to be reformatted. The hacker nonchalantly holstered his weapon and put the drawing hand back on the keyboard, smoothly shifting back to typing two handed.

Like he said, a minute later his computer gave a quick tone and he pulled the Ethernet cable out of its port and closed the lap top as said cable was retracted into the device twenty feet above him. Daniel put the laptop into its sleeve in the book bag on his back with practiced ease as he stood up before he hopped off the branch and landed on Luna's back. Said Pegasusmon quickly oriented herself towards their home and started rapidly flying, gaining altitude as she went to put further distance between her and the treetops of the strange forest.

The three hour flight was spent in comfortable silence and when they approached the base a piece of the cliff slid out and up on a set of tracks allowing Luna to fly into the hangar like section of the base. Luna landed as the 'garage door' closed and Daniel hopped off. A moment later, Luna was covered in light as she dedigivolved and she sighed as she said "We truly cannot wait until we can remain in Champion form indefinitely."

"I'm rather more impatient for when you're first able to go Mega. Considering your original status as an Alicorn, it should be quite impressive, even for a Mega." Daniel said as he began making the way out of the hangar and down to the ground floor. Luna's eyes glazed over as she imagined having all of her powers back and maybe even a little more at the tips of her hooves before she shook herself and hurried after her partner.

The two made quick tracks to the base's MTAC and Daniel quickly settled into the main computer's station and began typing. A moment later, the big screen lit up as sections of a map showing a super continent began appearing. Seeing the name Network at the top left, Luna snorted and said "We still feel that thou sense of naming things could use improvement Daniel."

Daniel shrugged and said "Meh, like I said before, I'm just sticking with the naming convention of the first show. They had File Island and the continent Server so it only makes sense to have the supercontinent they'll come from named the same way."

"Not if thou can change what they're named in this world." Luna said, beginning to restart an old 'argument' between the two.

Daniel shot her a look over his shoulder as he said "Are you really going to start that again or are you going to help me see if there are any other Digidestined on this world yet?"

Luna gave a put upon sigh as she walked over to a computer station built with her body type in mind, I.E, mental controls rather than a keyboard, and said "We still do not see why thou convinced us to learn how to use this strange machine, you are much more better at using it than We."

"Because the population of your world will be a lot more accepting of any technology I bring to them if one of their rulers can actually use it and demonstrate its usefulness? Now set up a search for any human bio signatures." Daniel asked flatly, not even looking at the currently a digimon.

Luna sighed again and said "Of course, how silly of us to forget." That got a chuckle out of the hacker even as he finished his first set of typing and pulled out his Digivice, placing it in a docking port by the keyboard and making five more keystrokes before turning towards the big screen. Luna finished her mental commands to tell the computer to scan for any life forms that matched Daniel's bio signature and also looked at the big screen.

Said screen had a bunch of lines that were making circular circuits like clocks as the scanners they denoted ran their searches. Daniel bit his lower lip as he muttered "I don't know whether I want there to be other Digidestined out there and know I'm not the only human here or hope that there aren't and so no kids that have been stuck here without their parents."

"Personally, we believe that no foal should be taken from their parents either." Luna said before both of them flinched as a cluster of dots appeared in the southwest section of the map.

"Ah hell." Daniel said even as he zoomed in on them. He then blinked as he said "Luna, are you seeing a big-ass tiger, a giant two-headed turtle, a phoenix, and a dragon made out of clouds and chains apparently talking to twelve human adults?"

"Oh good, it's not just We who see them." Luna said before both felt their jaws drop an inch as one of the humans looked up and gave a wave while winking.

"Right, well Gennai appears to be as cheeky as ever." Daniel said once he recovered, slightly gratified to see the snickering Gennai get dope slapped by the hooded human on his right. The two watched as the sixteen beings finished whatever conversation they had previously been having before four digiports opened and the four Sovereigns left the area. The twelve humans quickly walked over to a set of three vehicles that honestly looked like the speeders from Star Wars only more elongated.

The group was soon rapidly leaving the area and Luna said "Should we go to them?"

Daniel narrowed his eyes and said "As much as I'd like to, it could seriously mess with the timeline that I know of. If they come to us, then we'll talk but otherwise we'll leave them alone."

"Very well then Daniel." Luna said as she moved away from her station and let out a jaw-cracking yawn as she began walking out of the MTAC, calling over her shoulder "We are feeling rather tired, we believe we'll go take a nap now."

"Sure thing Luna, you deserve some rest." Daniel said watching her push the door open and leave before he spun back around to his station and cracked his fingers before going back to typing.

Time Skip: Ten Months After Arrival Location: Base Training Room

"Needle Spray!" Luna called out and a bunch of needles made from her mane shot forward slamming into a bulls eye target that was moving side to side. Daniel let out a low whistle as he said "You've managed to tighten your grouping by forty two percent, well done."

If she was more bird than horse, the royal digimon would be preening right now, as it was, she merely allowed herself to grin as Daniel fished out his Digivice and said "Seeing how well you've managed to train your Champion form and the fact that you've remained in it nonstop for the last month, what do you say to getting a sneak peek at your Ultimate Form?"

Luna's eyes lit up and if she was a dog, her tail would be a blur as it wagged as she said "We would very much like that."

Daniel nodded and said "Then let's give it a whirl." The hacker sent his energy into the Digivice and it began to glow. However, after ten seconds, Luna still hadn't been surrounded in the usual light and his eyes narrowed even as he grit his teeth and muttered "Come on…" He pushed even more energy into it, enough to cause sweat to form and Luna started to worry for him. But just before she was going to tell him to stop, Daniel let out a grunt and sent one last massive surge of his energy into the device and _finally_ the light shining out began blazing, turning a dark blue and hitting Luna covering her in light as well.

Luna threw her head back as the energy surged through her and shouted "Pegasusmon Digivolve to… Alicornmon!"

The light burst apart, but before she could even take a look at her new body, Daniel let out a groan before he toppled to the side and she dedigivolved even as she let out a panicked shout of his name and rushed over to him.

Ten minutes later, Daniel woke up in the infirmary with a groan. Sitting up with a hand on his head, he said "What hit me?"

"According to the scanners thou thoughtfully added when thou made this room, extreme exhaustion from using ninety five percent of thou bio energy." Luna said looking at him in concern from where she was standing by a large screen displaying the results of one of said scanners.

"Guess that's why the Digidestined from the show's first two seasons needed Crests or DNA Digivolving to get their partners to Ultimate, the drain otherwise would most likely kill them since they're not even teenagers." Daniel said as he lay back down on the bed, limbs slightly shaking from fatigue. Frowning, he said "I'm going to have to figure out how to either hook you up to an alternate power source or expand my own energy reserves if we want you to be able to go Ultimate for more than a few seconds anytime within this decade."

"Can we not simply wait until We are strong enough to Digivolve to the next stage on our own?" Luna asked with a frown.

"If we had a few other Digidestined and their partners with us I'd say there wouldn't be that much of a rush. However, we DON'T have that luxury so unfortunately we need to have a way for you to go to the next level and stay there for more than just a few seconds if we ever get into a really bad situation where your Champion form just doesn't cut it." Daniel said, his frown growing a little as he considered the problem.

"Fair enough, but We do not believe that thou must come up with a solution immediately. So long as we remain in the base then we are safe. Rest, recover your strength, and then try to solve this new problem."

"Yes mother." Daniel chuckled but nevertheless relaxed and closed his eyes, the amused huff from his partner the last thing he heard as he slipped back into the realm of Morpheus.

END


	3. Chapter 3

3\. Seeking The Path To Ultimate

Story Start: Eleven Months After Arrival

It took Daniel three weeks to fully recover from his attempt to Digivolve Luna to Ultimate. Though that's not to say that he stayed in the infirmary for that long. After two days of heavy sleeping, he had enough energy to be transferred into a wheel chair he typed into existence and he quickly got the hang of using it, though he did need Luna to gather things from shelves for him. Still, even after those two days and keeping his activities to a minimal, he slept for longer each night than he ever had before, the rest of the first week he actually slept for a full eight hours, the second was for five, and the third week he slept for three. It wasn't until the twenty third day after their digivolution attempt that he was back to sleeping only one hour a night.

Needless to say, the cost of Luna going to Ultimate for less than five seconds scared the hell out of the two, especially when they took into account that _children_ were the normal partners to digimon. That kind of strain on a child's body was sure to kill them before the transformation even started. And the less said about what the power requirements for going to Mega probably were the better. And not every kid was going to be getting a crest in the future when, not if, humanity started pairing up with digimon globally. Daniel _needed_ to find a way to make a digimon partner going Ultimate to be a viable option for those who weren't granted crests, if only so that way others could handle a Mega level threat by throwing dozens of Ultimates at it. It didn't help that he and Luna were currently the only human-digimon pair so far and they would have the exact same problem if they ever got ambushed by a higher tier digimon while out of their base.

The day after his sleeping pattern stabilized, Daniel threw himself into the problem. He copied the code of his Digivice several times and locked up the original so that he didn't accidently cause it to explode if his experiments went wrong. He then typed an experimental bunker that could contain any said explosions into existence a mile away from their home and began experimenting.

The first hurtle was figuring out how to enable a Digivice to accept power from an external source. Because he didn't have access to a crest, Daniel couldn't see how one would connect to a Digivice, and was in fact almost one hundred percent sure that such objects of power would need a Digivice to be specifically 'tuned' to one to be accessed so even if he did stumble upon one, there was little to no guarantee that he could even use the darned thing. So he started with a power source he already had access to, his geothermal power plant housed underneath the base. A quick bit of hacking later, and he had a one way power valve that would allow the energy to reach the new base but not damage the system if there were any unfortunate accidents. And oh, were there accidents.

It took Daniel twelve tries to even get the Digivice Copies capable of linking up to the generator without immediately frying their circuits or even exploding. Apparently, the Digivices didn't like using anything but the bio energies they were made to draw from their human owners and got touchy when made to do so. Two weeks of tinkering later though he managed to tweak it enough that he was willing to try and digivolve Luna to Ultimate. The result was a rather…enthusiastic…explosion from the Digivice Copy during the transition and a once more Ponymon. Thank Primus the thing had been behind no less than three sheets of thick bullet resistant glass when the test started. Luna had gone back to Champion form on her own even as she stared wide eyed at the scorch mark where the Copy had been.

A week of more tweaking later they gave it another try. There were no explosions this time but the Digivice Copy _melted_ during the transformation and yet again, Luna was _de_ digivolved into her rookie stage.

Daniel let out a groan of frustration as he rubbed his hands over his face and said "This is getting ridiculous. If we can't get a proper digivolution out of a power source that's a stationary system, then how the hell will we be able to get one out of an easily portable one while out in the field?"

"Language, though We will admit that this is very frustrating." Luna said absently as she finished digivolving into Pegasusmon.

Daniel sighed as he dragged his hands down his face before he said "I'll give geo thermal one more try. If it doesn't work, then we'll have to come up with another power source."

Luna wished him luck before leaving to grab something to eat in order to make up for the energy she spent returning to her Champion form.

Time Skip: Two Months Later

Daniel was officially at the end of his rope. Geo thermal was a bust, Solar power only made a giant flash bang every time it was used, Steam power for some reason turned the Copy into a super charged humidifier, and Nuclear Energy damn near made a second sun. No matter what he tried, Daniel could not make the Digivice Copies accept an alternate power source.

Daniel was currently thumping his head in a soft but repeated motion on a desk he had typed into existence for that exact purpose an hour after that last test while Luna stared with concern between him and the rather impressive crater of bubbling reinforced concrete where the latest Digivice Copy had been. Daniel finally stopped the abuse to his head as he said "That's it, I can't go any further external power wise. Anything greater than Nuclear energy has the potential to completely wipe out the testing bunker, not to mention a good chunk of the surrounding area."

Luna considered that for a moment before she said "Then if thou cannot introduce a new power source, then maybe thou can find a way to increase the current one." As Daniel turned his head to look at her from a single eye, she continued "Thou have already found a way to increase your strength and agility tenfold have thou not?"

Daniel pulled his head away from the desk with a sigh and ran a hand over it as he said "Worth a shot, I guess. I'll start running calculations for how much bioenergy is needed for a five minute long digivolution and figure out how to increase my reserves."

Time Skip: Two Weeks Later

Daniel bit his lip as he stared at his Original Digivice. He had run a scan to see just what he could quantify when pushing his energy into it in order to make Luna digivolve and had used that scan to slowly but steadily tweak a few things in his own code. If his calculations were correct then Luna should be able to go Ultimate for exactly sixty seconds. If that happened and he didn't immediately conk out after the Digivolution then they would know that they were on the right track and he could proceed to further increasing his bio energy to the point where she could go for two minutes, and so on and so on. And if he got it wrong, well, that's what the medical gurney he was currently laying on in an upright position was for. Giving a deep sigh, he looked up at Luna and said "You ready for this?"

"As ready as We can be." Luna said with a resolute nod.

"Right then, test one." Daniel said before he began focusing and sending his energy into the Digivice. The room they were in was silent for a moment before the Digivice flared to life and Luna called out "Pegasusmon Digivolve to Alicornmon!"

Daniel had just enough time to see Luna's Ultimate form for five seconds before she suddenly dedigivolved and as he saw darkness rapidly take over his vision he said "Damn it, it's exponential after all." The next instant he was out cold and Luna allowed herself to utter curses under her breath as she slipped into a harness at the end of the bed and began pulling the gurney towards Daniel's room.

Three days later, Daniel was finally alert enough to hold a serious conversation with Luna. As he absolutely demolished a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs, a plate of three waffles already cleaned out to the side, he said "I'm not sure how much more I can tweak my bioenergy reserves. Modifying my skeletal and muscular systems is one thing, but for all I know, if I give my bio electrical systems the boost we need then when we leave the digital world my 'real' body might just simultaneously explode from energy over saturation."

Luna winced at that mental image and said "What about a possible external power source and energy converter combination like what thou planned with the Digivice?"

Daniel ignored his first instinct to shoot the idea down and instead considered it for a moment as he ate. Finally. when he had cleared the plate he gave one last swallow and said "It'd be even trickier than trying to get the Digivice to cooperate but it _might_ be doable. I have absolutely no idea how we could safely test that though. It's not like I can just make a bunch of copies of myself to test on in order to avoid blowing myself up, that'd just be plain unethical if nothing else."

Luna frowned and said "Then it seems we must start very slowly. That or simply wait until We are strong enough to make the change by ourselves."

"That could take years, decades even before you could make the change stick long enough to be effective in a fight that would require that much force." Daniel pointed out with a frown as he crossed his arms.

Luna opened her mouth for a retort before sighing and closed it with a nod.

The two were silent for a while before Daniel sighed and stacked his plates. Rolling over to the dishwasher and putting his eating tools in, he said "I'll see what I can come up with. But if this doesn't work, then we might have to go look for some help."

Luna looked up in confusion and watched as he wheeled out of the room and asked "Help? Who could we ask help from?"

"I'm not the only one working on human-digimon partnerships, or at least I won't be for long." Daniel called back into the kitchen as he made his way to the portal that connected to the experiment bunker. Luna could only blink at that, before she cocked her head and said to herself "We thought he said to leave them alone unless they came to us first."

Time Skip: One Week Later

Daniel let out a yelp as his prototype converter zapped him. Luna stared at the afro the physics of the world they were in demanded his hair turn into for exactly five seconds before she snickered a few times against her will. Daniel didn't even bother shooting her a look as he pulled a comb out of a pocket with one hand and started typing with the other even as he said "That's the fifth time today, haven't you grown accustomed to that sight yet?"

"A little, after all We were rolling on the floor the first time." Luna said with a cheeky grin.

That did get Luna a flat look as he said "Loosened up over the past year or not, you're not that loose with your emotions yet Luna. You merely tapped the ground three times with your front left hoof and snickered ten times the first time."

"Only until We left to retrieve that snack thou wanted from the kitchen and We were by ourselves for a few minutes." Luna said, grin still in place.

"Noted." Daniel said with an upwards twitch of his mouth as he went back to work. Honestly, compared to how much trouble he had with the Digivice Copies, the converter prototype was being practically saint like. Sure, it had zapped him the aforementioned five times as he tried to get it to work, but compared to the dozens of melt downs/explosions it took before even getting to the first digivolution test, this was tame. Besides, better the joker buzzer levels he was dealing with now than the possibly electric chair levels that he would be dealing with later if he didn't fix whatever was going wrong first. And he WAS getting closer to figuring out what was wrong, by process of elimination if nothing else.

Daniel frowned slightly as he worked to 'untangle' one of the snags in the prototype's coding, the hacker's work transitioning to the converter's insides shifting around and changing just the slightest bit as he worked. Unlike the Digivice Copies, the converter prototype was roughly the size and shape of a small watermelon. Daniel was starting relatively big in order to work out all of the bugs easily before he began condensing the code into a much more portable device once he was sure it would work properly. This decision came from how hard it had been to get the small Copies to accept extremely high levels of power.

After a minute of careful consideration and typing, Daniel nodded and said "Alright, let's see if that worked." He once more hooked the converter up to the geo thermal power plant of the base before slowly placing his hand on it. He hissed as he felt a slight static shock and jerked his hand back but grinned as he said "NOW we're getting somewhere!" If he had bothered to glance over to Luna, he would have seen a very slight amount of disappointment in her eyes even as she smiled at the progress her partner was making.

Two Days Later

It was finally time. Daniel had made the last changes he needed an hour ago and they were FINALLY going to get Luna to remain Ultimate longer than just a few seconds. He had already tested that he could draw energy from the geo thermal plant and in turn send that energy into the Digivice once converted, they only needed to finish the process by sending it to Luna now.

Said Digimon took a deep breath as she once more stood in the testing area, giving a single nod to her partner to show she was ready. Daniel returned the nod as he said "Using Energy Converter Prototype in Order to Achieve Ultimate Stage Digivolution, Test One. In three, two, one."

There was a brief pause for a moment before the Digivice erupted in light, turning dark blue as a beam of light shot out of it and hit Luna who immediately threw her head back and once more yelled "Pegasusmon digivolve to…Alicornmon!" The light show ended and for the first time ever, Daniel finally had enough energy remaining to take in Luna's newish form. Daniel grinned as he began wheeling his wheel chair around her as he breathed out "Oh hello, beautiful." Luna blushed lightly under her fur at his praise but also couldn't stop the pleased grin on her muzzle.

Luna was in a word, majestic. She had gained an additional foot at the shoulder and her height was further extended by the royal blue horn that had softly glowing silver strands of metal spiraling down from its tip to the base. Her helmet was a lot less blocky, more streamlined, and looking like a piece of art a blacksmith would lovingly give his entire focus into every inch of his metal working, intricate patterns of the same silver threads going over the metal. It didn't stop at her head either, the elegant helmet leading to a just as elaborate neck armor set that her mane waved over like waves across a beach, and oh, what a mane it was. Daniel almost reverently reached a hand up and ran it through the expanse of star filled night sky, marveling at how it felt both solid and gaseous at the same time. Daniel continued his inspection with the small chest piece that had a diamond shaped Blue Sodalite gem in the center, the silver threads seeming to have originated from its own silver veins. The armor on her front legs had been similarly modified with small sodalites being the sources for other silver threads at the top center of each boot. Moving onto the wings, they had grown, now sporting an impressive sixteen-foot wing span, the feathers putting everything Daniel had ever seen before to shame, the three front feathers on the tips shimmering with the silver threads shifting over them in an ever-moving pattern and a quick examination showed that they were also metal, and the edges quite sharp as well. The fur that wasn't covered in armor was an almost indescribable deep blue that was incredibly soft to the touch and her tail matched the mane with how it shimmered much like an aurora borealis would, the stars in both shifting into dozens of constellations in a continuous motion.

Finishing his circuit, Daniel stared up at his partner from his wheel chair and grinned as he said "I know I said it before Luna, but it bears saying again, you are absolutely beautiful."

Luna gave a soft giggle before adopting a mock stern look and said "Flattery shall get thou nowhere Mr. Richardson." Said hacker couldn't help the laugh that escaped him when Luna couldn't hold the expression for long and instead grinned at him. Her grin turned to a slight frown of concern as she said "How are thou enduring the strain of maintaining this form?"

Daniel blinked once and looked down at the converter that was sitting on his lap next to his Digivice and said "Great, besides a small feeling like I've got a small stream running over my body I barely feel anything at all. My reserves are being refilled almost faster than they're being used." Looking back up at Luna with a grin, he said "Assuming we can make the converter more portable, I think we have a viable option for dealing with Ultimates until you can make this your default form."

Luna's grin returned before she gave a short nod to the Digivice and said "Shall we see what your Digivice has to say about We?"

"Yes we shall." Daniel said with an eager grin as he quickly rolled over to his laptop and put the Digivice in its docking port. When it brought up her stats, he let out an impressed whistle and said "I know each digivolution stage is exponentially more powerful than the previous one but this is still impressive. You're approximately a hundred times stronger as an Ultimate than as a Champion. It wouldn't surprise me if you could take on _two_ Ultimates at once if you played your cards right. Moving on, you're still obviously a Holy Beast type Digimon, let's see, looks like your Rodeo Kick got upgraded to High Horsepower, isn't that the name of a Pokemon Attack? Hm, eh, whatever, your Equis Beam is now Lunar Beam, hm, wonder what that would be if you weren't a lunar based being, anyway, it's also an incredibly upgraded attack compared to before. Star Shower is still there though it too is more powerful, though you no longer have Golden Noose for some reason. It IS replaced with Celestial Bands though which wraps an opponent up in bands of celestial energy. Pegas Drop is upgraded to Sky Spear, obviously named with your new horn in mind. Needle Rain's a no show, not surprising given your new mane's look, but it is replaced with Celestial Wave, an attack that is an area of effect attack that can damage everything around you, and ooh, not only does it have a one-hundred-yard attack radius, it's also got an IFF ability that means only the targets you choose are affected by it, _very nice_!"

Luna allowed herself a single giggle as Daniel devolved from a serious adult to a kid with a new toy as he looked over that last one. A moment later, Daniel looked up from the information he was seeing and said "These are some very impressive abilities Luna. I think the most impressive bit though is the small note that you're now capable of magic now."

Luna perked up and quickly trotted over to look at his screen. She grinned at that and her horn lit up as she prepared to use a common spell to try it out. Her grin faltered though as the converter suddenly sparked worriedly before dying and she was suddenly a Ponymon again. Both she and Daniel gave the equipment a concerned look as she said "What happened?! It was doing just fine a moment ago!"

Daniel gently prodded the device with one of his tools and frowned as he said "I'm getting no more readings; your magic could have fried it like an electrical magnetic pulse." He opened up the outer casing and flinched as a bit of electrical smoke escaped. Seeing the insides, he said "Definitely fried them. I'll have to give the final model proper shielding to avoid that." Daniel turned a grin to Luna and said "Still, the fact that we _actually_ got you to finally stay in Ultimate for longer than half a minute without a crest is incredible. I feel like singing 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now' from the top of the cliff the base is on."

Luna gave another giggle as she said "It certainly is quite an achievement, and now We are even more eager to be able to make Ultimate our default level."

Daniel nodded and said "Better be ready to increase your training Luna, we've got a long road ahead of us, but the destination will be well worth it."

END

Author's Notes: Hey guys, please take a look at my profile, there's a very important poll there that will majorly affect the story line of my Marching Beside the King story that WILL be closed when I start writing its second chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

4\. Ultimate Power

It had been one year since Daniel had successfully managed to digivolve Luna into Ultimate. He now carried a portable electromagnetically shielded and water proof energy converter no bigger than his Digivice right next to it on his belt. Said converter was powered by a massive five-hundred-foot-long dedicated solar power collection rig with extremely high-powered energy transmission capabilities he had typed into existence then shortly pushed through a wormhole that lead to one hundred miles from the digital world's sun. He went with such an over the top method since he didn't want to risk the geothermal plant the base was on being overworked by multiple Ultimate and Mega digivolutions and using nuclear when other options were available was unwise. Besides, he was a hacker in a digital world, he was allowed to be a little over the top every once in a while.

Luna was making good use of all that power now, powerful wings aided by a magical tailwind as she flew just under the sound barrier, quite literally since she was traveling at a consistent speed of 766 miles per hour, one mile below the sonic threshold. This was not however because she was at her limit, but in order to allow Daniel to continue tracking the high frequency soundwaves he had detected over an hour ago with the MTAC sensors.

Glancing back out of the corner of her eye as she shot over a group of five mountains, she asked "Any change Daniel?"

Daniel shook his head as he looked at the scanner held in his off hand while the other kept a solid grip on the horn of the magical saddle he was on and said "Nothing, the signal just keeps repeating Regret, Regret, Regret. And while it was catchy at first, I still don't know what it's talking about."

Luna gained an impish smile as she magically altered her voice to that of an African American male and said "Dear humanity, we Regret coming to Earth, we Regret being alien bastards, and we most certainly Regret that the corps blew up our raggedy ass fleet!"

Daniel rolled his eyes as two body-less voices let out a "oorah!" and said "It was amusing when you did that back at base Luna, now you're just being repetitive." Shaking his head, he said "I NEVER should have let you play the Halo game copies on my lap top last week, OR watch the movies on it. All you've been doing since then is making Halo quotes whenever you can."

Luna's smile turned into a grin as she said "But of course We would like it, it is a well written story of a race seemingly hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned beating the odds to snatch victory from defeat. And We find the defeating of our foes in such a violent manner is most satisfying."

Daniel sighed with a shake of his head and said for what seemed like the hundredth time "I would never have pegged you as a Halo Otaku."

Luna merely let out a chuckle at that before she grew serious again as Daniel stiffened and said "The signal's location just moved a few degrees on the scanner's compass, we must be getting closer. Turn three degrees to the right and drop to one hundred feet altitude and sixty miles per hour."

"Yes Daniel." Luna said and after making the slight course correction dived from her original altitude of seven hundred feet above sea level to one hundred, dropping the magical tailwind and going into a horizontal glide with her wings set to act as airbrakes, the equestrian rapidly decelerating for a short period of time before she began flapping again at a much slower pace.

Ten minutes later, they were circling a rather massive sink hole in a rocky desert region, white clouds of smoke mixed with steam drifting up from several places. As they flew over the destruction Luna looked over her shoulder and said "We don't suppose you could perchance have any idea about what could have happened here?"

Daniel shook his head and said "Nothing I've ever seen matches this." After a moment of staring at the destruction, he pointed to the southwest end and said "There, the rubble dispersion pattern indicates a preexisting hole had made it easier for collapse, that was probably either an entrance or a large air vent."

"Then that is where we shall start." Luna said before she finished her circuit around the hole before she landed, both her head AND her ears on a swivel as she tried to detect a threat to her and her partner. Daniel meanwhile slid off her magic saddle allowing her to dismiss it while he pulled out his trusty lap top from his book bag and began rapidly typing, bringing a whole geography team's worth of scanning equipment into existence both by them and stationed around the crater. As he began wirelessly bringing the equipment online, a hologram projector spun up and began displaying information on the sinkhole as the equipment scanned it.

As the data came in Daniel frowned and said "There's a lot of highly concentrated metal down there." Tapping a spot on the hologram which made it zoom in, he continued "Look here, this looks like those could have been manufacturing robots before they got crushed. And here," He tapped another spot and it obligingly zoomed in as he said "Those look like they could have been some kind of scanning equipment." Glancing to Luna now, he said "I think this was some kind of combination of factory and research center, though why they would build it underground I have no idea."

"But who could have possibly have made and used this place? It is not Gennai's group, we already know they're halfway to Network's opposite coast from here. And there are no other humans besides them and you."

"Never said this place had to be built by humans." Daniel said with a frown as he went back to studying the information the scanners were giving him. Luna frowned as well as she looked at the information trying to make sense out of it while she thought 'That is certainly true in this place.'

After ten minutes of study, Daniel let out a slow breath before he once more pointed to an area and said "Best I can figure, going by the heavy concentration of metal and electrical scans picking up slightly more activity than anywhere else, this is where we're most likely to find any computers if they have any."

Luna frowned and said "But that is on the other side of the crater from us. Shall we move over there and make our own entrance?"

Daniel momentarily bit his lower lip in thought before he sighed and said "Wish we had a team of combat engineers or even a rescue team to tell us the best way to do this." Shaking his head, he said "Alright, we know from your Ultimate tests that you can telekinetically lift and move multi-thousand ton weights, so lifting up the rubble won't be a problem. We'll begin directly over the identified room, with you moving everything up top in a twenty foot radius of the room in one mass and putting it all here." He had the hologram projector show a much larger section of the local area and pointed at a spot that was a hundred feet from the edge of the sink hole before continuing "We'll work one layer at a time to minimize the risk of further collapse. Once we have the rubble over and in the room removed, we'll shore up the sides of the hole as best we can and see if anything is recoverable. We'll decide which direction to continue our excavation after that."

Luna nodded and said "Understood, hop on." Her saddle reformed and Daniel quickly remounted and as soon as he was on, she flew over to the excavation site and her horn began glowing a deep blue, the glow appearing on each piece of rubble one at a time. Once she was sure she had everything on the top level of debris secure, she gave a slight flex of her mind and the rubble smoothly lifted into the air before floating out of the large crater and settling down a hundred feet away. Five repetitions of this later revealed reinforced concrete rather than rock as they reached the ceiling of the base and Luna's technique took a slightly more cautious approach as she began using her magic to hold the remains of the walls in place as she continued lifting anything that didn't look like it had been housed in the room before the collapse out. As she worked, the rock outside the room shifted every once in a while but thankfully held against Luna's barrier whenever the twenty feet of separation weren't enough.

When they were finally on the ground of the room and Luna was sure the footing was semi secure, she allowed Daniel to slide off of the saddle and she idly dismissed it as she watched him take one last glance around before striding with careful but quick steps to a wrangled machine that to her looked no different than the rest. He brushed some dirt from a part though and soon had his lap top linked to it through a data port. Whatever he saw had him let out a wince as he said "The data in this thing is absolutely wrecked. Let me see if I can unscramble it a little."

The next few minutes were filled with silence except for the hacker's typing. After a while, he let out a breath and said "Alright, I think I've got the last entry as good as I can get it without performing surgery on this thing. Let's see what we've got." He hit the enter key on his keyboard in a stroke that had his hand raising up off it to join the other in the air and static poured from the laptop's speakers for a moment before a voice was heard.

" _To anyone listening to this, I speak now to tell of a terrible mistake we have made. We had hoped to create an Ultimate digimon that we could mass produce in order to serve as our soldiers. The prototype was a success, far stronger than anything we could throw at it and we began making more. But as we were making the rest of the first squadron, a virus somehow made it through our firewalls."_ There was the sound of an explosion and screams interrupted the voice, a _ping_ sound of high speed metal striking metal right next to the mic and a grunt of pain had Luna widening her eyes while Daniel narrowed his and the voice continued in a more shaky tone _"It seems I won't have long now. The virus took over the soldiers and they all began going crazy, deleting everyone they came across and destroying the rest. They must be stopped, at any cost. Gather as many Champions as you can and-"_ The speaker was cut off as another voice called out "Lightning Blade!" and it let out a loud yell of pain before there was silence once more.

Daniel looked up at Luna as he closed the lid of his laptop and put it in his bag and said "I know what took out this place."

"Who?" Luna asked warily before her ears twitched at a sound under the rubble beyond the room.

Suddenly the rubble exploded upwards as a Digimon burst through it, up into the air and then down towards them, a red light visible in one eye as it landed and yelled at them. It staggered back as Daniel quick drew his pistol and fired it ten times, the final shot finally making it burst apart into data as the hacker said "Andromon."

There were several yells as even more of the cyborg digimon burst out of the rubble towards them and Luna quickly snatched Daniel in her telekinesis and shot out of the kill zone even as the cyborgs launched missiles from their chest at them. As Luna pulled him into the reformed saddle Daniel shouted over the sound of explosions "I counted eight, so where the hell are the last three?"

"A good question to ask later Daniel!" Luna called back as she began dodging more missiles. As Luna dodged the new barrage, Daniel took a closer look at their attackers and suddenly called out "Black armor instead of chrome, they really were manufactured rather than digivolved!"

"Impressive if foolish of their creators." Luna muttered before she had enough with defense and switched to offense as she called out "Celestial Bands!" Her horn blazed as she fired silver energy out of it that quickly broke up into several bands that wrapped around the eight cyborgs pinning their arms together. The Ultimates strained against their bindings before almost as one the upgraded mon ripped them apart with sheer strength. By that time though Luna had already charged up her second move and she called out "Star Shower!" Portals to space appeared under her wings and flaming meteors shot out from them and slammed into the androids throwing up smoke clouds and debris into the air with a thunderous sound akin to a rockslide cranked to eleven causing Daniel to clap his hands to his ears with a wince, only to wince a second time as his gun hit his head. Quickly holstering it, he yelled out "Think that took any of them out?"

Before Luna could answer, there were multiple shouts of "Lightning Blade!" and no less than five shrieking blades of the element shot out of the smoke cloud towards Luna on curving projections that severely limited her dodging abilities. But Luna was a natural born Alicorn and the sky was as welcoming to her as the ground and she dodged the blades if not easily then with a margin of at least a foot regardless. She let loose with a might flap of her wings that combined with a magical gust scattered the smoke cloud revealing seven Andromon standing, the last one pinned under stone and trying to lift it and two of the others missing most of their arms with heavily damaged armor throughout the rest of their bodies.

Luna studied their opponents coolly as the cyborgs stared up at her before Daniel got her attention and said "Luna, land on the edge of the crater, I'm only holding you back like this!"

Luna's first instinct was to deny that and keep Daniel safe in the air with her but he was right. She could have avoided that last set of attacks much easier if she hadn't had to worry about keeping Daniel out of their way. So she quickly shot over to the edge of the crater and landed. Daniel quickly slid off her back before he slipped off his bookbag and said "Guess now's as good a time as any to test this out."

Luna looked at the small handheld device in his left hand in curiosity before it erupted into a familiar set of two parallel blades of energy and she gave her partner an amused look and said "And thou call me a Halo Otaku."

Daniel grinned even as he shrugged and said "What can I say, you got me interested and a Type 1 Energy Sword is actually better in a combat situation than a light saber so I thought 'What the Hell?'" He waved the sword a little as he continued "And I even managed to upgrade the battery system so I can use this thing for a whole hour before recharge."

Luna merely hummed at that before she snapped her attention back to the modified Andromon as they let loose with another missile barrage to cover their charge towards them. Luna intercepted the missiles with debris launched telekinetically before she shot over the rubble in a counter charge, Daniel five steps behind her and to her right, the man's hacking of his code showing through as the two blurred to the eyes of anything below Ultimate level. Luna's second Celestial Bands tripped up the charging Andromon when they locked around their feet rather than their arms and just as the one in the lead was getting back to its feet her magically augmented High Horsepower absolutely shattered its compromised chest armor and it went flying back through the air even as it began dissolving. Daniel took out the one beside it with another barrage from his pistol before he used the energy sword in his left hand to block a punch from another cyborg. He grunted as the punch unbalanced him but used the motion to backflip away from the cyborg before firing again. Seeing her partner in trouble, Luna let loose with her Celestial Wave attack which threw the four cyborgs back a small distance with their armor smoking from the attack.

As they began getting up, Daniel noticed the pinned Andromon finally roll the large stone off of it and said "Don't look now, but their buddy just got up again."

"Just makes the fight a little more challenging." Luna said with narrowed eyes before she fired a blast of magic that crackled like lightning at one of the two cyborgs missing an arm and it twitched before Daniel's pistol took it out leaving them with four opponents left.

"Yeah well, it's a good thing we're the ones dealing with this and not the standard kid and digimon group, keeping multiple kids safe from so many modified Ultimates would be close to impossible." Daniel said jumping at the end to avoid a missile shot at him and shooting the offender while still in the air. He had to hold fire to properly land but shot forward in a zig zag pattern to avoid being hit and took out the opponent with a stab into the chest, his previous shots having weakened the chest armor enough for the sword to pierce through, though with some difficulty still. Just to be sure, Daniel fired a shot right into the Cyborg's digital eye before pulling away as it broke apart into floating bits of data.

"We admit it is comforting to know that thou can handle yourself in a fight." Luna acknowledged even as she let loose with a second, much more powerful Celestial Wave, the attack harmlessly passing Daniel, not even ruffling his clothes, but slammed into the last three Andromon hard enough to not only once more throw them off their feet but also crack their black Digichromzoid armor in large spider web patterns. As one Andromon got to his feet while charging up a Lightning Blade Luna shot forward with a quick flap of her wings and her speed enhanced Sky Spear took the extremely battered mon out as easily as if she had used it from a hundred feet in the air. Daniel instinctively covered his eyes from the wind of her passing and so almost missed the Lightning Blade another Andromon fired, almost.

Hearing the attack coming, he did an instinctive jump up and back doing a back flip allowing the attack to pass harmlessly under him before he landed and said "Alright buddy, I'm starting to have enough of you guys." Turning off his energy sword, he dropped it on the ground even as he flicked a switch on his pistol which had it quickly begin shifting like a Cybertronian transforming into what looked like a pump action shot gun that the Doom guy would use. Daniel pumped the weapon once before he fired and the kick back forced him to take a step back even as the _much larger_ bolt of energy shot forward and smashed through the cyborg's severely compromised armor and instantly atomized it.

Luna finished off the last opponent with one final Celestial Wave before she turned towards Daniel with a frown and said "Why did thou not simply use that before?"

"Recoil on this thing is an absolute beast, even with my bio -modifications, and it has a ten second recharge time." Daniel said turning his weapon back into its pistol form and holstering it before idly rolling his shoulder to get the sting out of it. Bending down to pick up his Energy Sword and putting it in his bookbag, he said "How are you holding up?"

Luna took one last deep breath before she said "We are fine Daniel, though We will admit that fight would have been much harder without your aid." There was visual proof of that on her armor. While she hadn't taken any _direct_ attacks, her armor had a small amount of scratches and small carbon marks from hot shrapnel impacts, including a rather worrisome one just below her right eye.

"That's good, because this isn't finished." Daniel said pulling out his laptop and beginning to rapidly type on it.

Luna carefully walked over the debris field to stand next to him as she asked "Agreed, but how are we going to find the other three Creations?"

"Our scanners should be up to the task, I just have to modify their search parameters." Daniel said as the fingers of his right hand flew across the keyboard, the left supporting it only long enough for Daniel to type a stand into existence to hold it before it joined its counterpart. A link with the sensors spread across Network was soon established and their new search parameters given. Two minutes later, Daniel cursed and said "Damn it, they've split up, and apparently on top of that they're fast. Nearest one's over two hundred miles away and still moving at roughly sixty miles per hour."

"Then it appears we have no time to waste." Luna said, her magic saddle forming as she spoke.

Daniel nodded and typed in one last command which had a scanner fade into existence and he snatched it out of the air with one hand even as he closed and put away his laptop with the other as he said "So it seems." Quickly mounting up, he said "Let's hunt some cyborgs."

END

Author's Notes: Update schedule is and will always be on my profile.

Now that that is out of the way, can I first say just how awesome and fitting it is that the LAST Sunday of 2017 is also the last day of the year and so I've literally kept up with my New Year's resolution of one chapter per week for the ENTIRE year?! I've got fireworks going off in my head right now, I kid you not.

(Deep Breath) Alright, now that we've got that covered, I want to bring up said update schedule. I know now that I _can_ post one chapter a week but by god almighty was it stressful sometimes! I think I've got about two hundred grey hairs and a few new stress lines over the year. Anyway, no, I'm not changing the schedule but I also won't be freaking out if I don't meet the deadline next year. Basically, excepting the One Shots which will still be worked on for a week each I'll post as soon as I've finished proof reading a chapter then move onto the next one. Some of those like the Transformer Prime chapters might be done in only a few days while some of my others may take between eight and fourteen days to be both as long and good as I like. Hopefully that won't happen often but it is what it is.

Anyway, Happy New Years everyone and here's to a productive 2018!


	5. Chapter 5

5\. A Glimpse At Mega

Story Start: Four Hours After Ruins Battle

There is a problem when you are tracking down three high speed targets that have split up, no matter which target you go after first, the other two will ALWAYS get even more distance, and the problem was compounded after you got the second target giving the third even more time to get away. However, even though the three artificial Andromons had been moving at sixty miles per hour in different directions, and for quite some time before Luna and Daniel had even reached the ruined factory besides, Luna was capable of going supersonic, and so they rapidly caught up with the first Digimon they went after.

The first Creation fell to a Sky Spear from a mile up, the exponentially powered by height attack shattering the mechanic monstrosity less than a mile from a nearby village of rookies and the odd champion. The Second got a barrage of sniper bolts from Daniel as Luna circled it, neither feeling the need to get that close to the enemy again when there was no risk of collateral damage to be had. However the third Creation was the one that was proving to be the most problematic of the bunch.

While numbers one and two had taken off on paths that were forty five degrees to each other, number three had taken off in the opposite direction. Technically, they should have gone after that one first, but the path of the other two put them coming across more populated areas so to limit collateral they had gone after them first. Now Luna was pushing her speed to the limit, reaching Mach 1.3 as they played catchup, Daniel kept safe in a magical shield in order to not be ripped out of her saddle by the all too physical force of the air being rapidly forced away from Luna's front.

They were ten minutes out when the nagging feeling in the back of Daniel's mind began. Five minutes out, it moved to the front. Two minutes out, Daniel finally figured out what was bugging him and he said to himself "Oh no, don't tell me."

"What is it Daniel?" Luna asked in concern, though she kept her head forward.

"I should have realized before. There's a Destiny Stone right in the way of this thing's path, almost right where we'll be when we catch up to it even." Daniel said grimly.

Luna instantly went into full soldier mode as she asked "Intentional? If so, destruction or power up?"

"Unknown, but given the cybernetic nature of target, probably intentional as soon as it detected the stone on its sensors. We're going to have to hit it hard if it's powering up right now."

"Understood." Luna said grimly as she put on one last burst of speed.

Unfortunately, as Luna came barreling up the mountain pass that led to where the diamond shaped stone with a metal ring around it was, it became clear that they had taken too long. The artificial Andromon not only had its hands on the Destiny stone, but there were wires with sensor pads on their ends also on it and the damn thing was visibly glowing red with extra power. Or at least it was before its sensors detected Luna's high speed approach and it spun around and launched a pair of missiles from its chest at her.

Luna flared her wings, both to rapidly decelerate and to launch a Star Shower at the missiles, causing them to prematurely detonate. Even with the rapid deceleration, Luna landed in a rather fast skid, only the rapid flapping of her wings keeping her from slamming into the Andromon, and thus the Destiny Stone. Managing to stop ten feet away from their opponent, Daniel rapidly dismounted as Luna said "Step away from the Destiny Stone Creature, its power is not yours to command."

"Negative, Destiny Stone energy shall sufficiently power this Unit in order to accomplish its mission." The artificial Digimon intoned mechanically.

"What mission?" Daniel asked even as he stepped away from Luna so that way he wasn't in the way of her reopening her wings if needed, drawing his pistol with his right hand and his energy sword with his left.

"Destruction of all enemy establishments." The cyborg intoned.

"Who is the enemy?" Daniel asked with narrowed eyes.

"All non Tierfrin are the Enemy of this Unit." Andromon state.

"Tierfrin?" Luna questioned with a quick glance towards Daniel.

"Never heard of it." Daniel replied shortly before he put all of his focus back onto the enemy up front and said "I don't know who or what this Tierfrin is but we cannot allow you to harm others."

"This Unit's mission will NOT be stopped." Andromon said with the first bit of emotion they heard from it. The black Digimon withdrew the wires that it had kept pressed to the stone during their conversation and leapt at Luna with right hand spinning. Luna flapped her wings once as she jumped back to avoid the attack even as she called out Lunar Beam!" The beam hit the android's lower left leg causing it to take a knee and Daniel capitulated as his round house kick knocked it away from him and into the side of the cliff surrounding the Destiny stone on three sides.

"Ow, ow, ow! Not a smart move!" Daniel said as he hopped on one foot shaking out his other foot. Seriously, that metal HURT!

Before Luna could chastise her partner, a pair of missiles launched out of the android's chest and the pair quickly got some distance even as they intercepted the missiles with an energy bolt and Lunar Beam. The missiles were only a cover though, Andromon came out of the resulting smoke cloud with both hands spinning and it hurled its Lightning Blades at them. Luna leapt up over hers while Daniel took a more, _proactive_ approach. Rolling back under the attack, he rolled back up to his feet with energy sword clipped to belt and pistol now a shot gun that he immediately fired. The recoil forced him back a step but the bolt of energy flew true and slammed into Andromon's head causing it to snap back and up.

There was silence for a long moment before the cyborg lowered its head and mechanically intoned "Was that supposed to damage this Unit?"

Daniel smirked and said "Nope, just to hold your attention. Luna Now!"

Before Andromon could try and locate said Alicorn, it got slammed by a High Horsepower on its right side, Luna removing her cloaking magic as she launched Andromon down the canyon and away from the Destiny Stone. Andromon flew for seventy feet before slamming down into the ground and carving a trench out of the stone floor for an additional fifteen feet. Just as it started to get up, Luna's Celestial Bands reached it. The Bands wrapped around Andromon's limbs and he struggled against them for a moment only to shatter them with a roar. He got a Celestial Wave to the face for his troubles which threw him back even farther.

As Andromon once more surged to its feet, Daniel narrowed his eyes and said "It's still got that aura around it. We're probably going to have to make it use up all of the Destiny Stone's energy it stole before we can actually damage it."

"Then sustained fire is our best bet." Luna said before she took position between Andromon and the Destiny Stone for a better firing angle and threw her head back as she charged up power then threw her head back forward as her horn glowed brightly and called out "LUNAR BEAM!" The silvery white beam slammed into Andromon's chest and he began slowly sliding back, unable to properly brace against its force like Luna could with four legs, at least at first. Over the keening sound of Luna's Holy type attack, Daniel and Luna's sharp ears heard a cracking sound and Andromon took first one step forward against the beam, then another.

As he continued walking forward against the beam with the continuous cracking sound, Daniel narrowed his eyes before he said "Sonnuva…he's got rambolts in those feet of his!"

Luna grit her teeth and began adding more power to her attack. But not two seconds later, Andromon shifted to a runner's stance, the aura around him shifted most of itself to its legs, and it suddenly shot down the beam length with a series of sharp cracking sounds as it rapid fire deployed and retracted its rambolts to move. Luna and Daniel only had long enough for their eyes to widen before Andromon was right in front of Luna and delivering a nasty haymaker. Luna let out a yell of surprised pain as she arced upwards, her Lunar Beam cutting off.

"Luna!" Daniel shouted in concern before he winced as Luna landed right in front of the Destiny Stone and slid up against it. He had to quickly leap back as Andromon tried to crush him with another punch, the cyber mon's fist burying itself into the ground. Back flipping away from the spot, Daniel landed by Luna and said "Well that didn't work."

Luna groaned a little as she got her hooves under her and said "Indeed, got any ideas Daniel?"

"Just one, time to take a page from the show." Daniel said grimly as he pulled out his digivice. He glanced down at it for a moment and said "Hope this works." He then slapped the device right onto the golden ring surrounding the Destiny Stone and the digivice immediately began shining brightly with white energy.

Luna's eyes widened and she said "What did you-" She didn't get any further as the digivice shot a beam of light at her and she began brightly shining as well and called out "Alicornmon digivolve too…War-Alicornmon!" Luna's already respectively tall body began growing to the size of a Clydsdale, and her horn had grown half again as thick and had an additional two feet added to its length. As the light faded away at the end of her shout, Daniel noticed that Luna's previous Sodalite themed armor was now a solid midnight blue, thicker than the previous armor by half, and totally encased her main body with large but jointed armor plating on the front of her wings, whose wingspan had grown from sixteen feet to a whopping twenty feet, her leading feathers holding wickedly sharp blades like her previous digivolution but made out of the same dense metal as the rest of her armor. Oh, and did he mention that that horn was _also_ encased in the metal? The only thing NOT covered in metal was her mane and tail that hung out of slits in the armor and had regained their more mundane composition of pre-Ultimate stages but somehow gave off the feeling of being dangerous weapons.

An instant after her digivolution, Luna let out a sharp snort through her nostrils before she suddenly blurred out of Daniel's sight. The next instant, she reappeared behind Andromon who immediately began sparking at the neck before its head began falling off. It only just came completely free before the cyborg burst apart into data.

"Whoa." Daniel said with an amazed grin and Luna gave another snort before she turned around and Daniel somehow knew that his partner was grinning under all of that armor. But just as she took a step to come back to him, she lit up with white light again and began rapidly shrinking, going past the height of her Ultimate and Champion forms and reverting all the way to her rookie stage. The now Ponymon staggered at the sudden height difference and collapsed to the ground with a frustrated "Darn it, not again!"

Daniel couldn't help the laugh that escaped him even as he rushed across the distance separating them. Sliding to a stop next to her, he reached down and picked her up as he said "How are you feeling Luna?"

"Beyond wanting to put an all you can eat restaurant out of business, fine." Luna said, and not a moment later, her stomach let out the mother of all growls causing a blush to be visible under her fur.

Daniel threw his head back and laughed at that. When he got his composure back, he said "Well then, we better get some food in you quick shouldn't we?" Luna could only nod in embarrassment and Daniel continued chuckling as he set her back on the ground and reached into his book bag for his trusty laptop.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll on my Profile

I looked at the last chapter of this story, more specifically the author's note and found it a bit depressing at how it's been seven months between chapters. I don't know if that means I'm being unproductive or if I just have too many stories in my rosters, but it certainly says something I don't like. Still, it was cool that this story started on the very first day of 2017 and its fourth chapter was on the very last day of 2017.


	6. Chapter 6

6\. In The Name of the Moon Part One

Story Start: Back At Base, One Week After Luna First Went Mega

Daniel and Luna were back in the testing bunker. Yesterday they had returned to the Destiny Stone to take a relatively small amount of its power, really less than a percent of it, and stored it in a small gem. Today, Daniel had used his, in his words, hacking BSery to multiply the size of the gem and thus the energy inside and attached it to a Copy Digivice. With the device supercharged, Luna was going to break through the barrier between Ultimate and Mega. True, she would only be able to hold it for twenty seconds without the actual Destiny Stone powering her and she would revert back to Ponymon for a day, but it would still give Daniel plenty of time to get a proper scan of her to see what they would be working with when they finally got to the point that she only needed the (Relatively Less Potent) energy from the Solar Satellite to initiate the change. (Unfortunately, when Daniel tried using THAT to change her to Mega the day they got back, it completely drained the stored battery of the satellite before the change completed and yet again she wound up as a Ponymon for the day.)

Taking a deep breath, the currently an Alicornmon nodded at Daniel and said "I am ready."

Daniel nodded from where he was sitting in front of his sensors and cracked his knuckles before placing them on his keyboard and said "Alright, initiating Digivolution in 3, 2, 1." He hit the enter key and the now watermelon sized gem began glowing even brighter, and the Copy Digivice attached to it began shining as well.

Luna felt the surge of energy and gave the customary digivolution call of "Alicornmon digivolve to Waralicornmon!" Luna enjoyed the massive rush of power her Mega form gave her while it lasted, Daniel's eyes darting over his sensor monitors before all too soon she reverted back to Rookie level and sagged as she said "As much as I like the power boost, I hope we won't be doing that again, the back lash is truly irritating."

"Not for another year at the extreme least, five most likely." Daniel said, tossing her a high energy ration bar that Luna caught in her mouth and began chewing on even as she walked over to the small table that held even more of them for her to munch on while her partner went over the data.

After a few minutes, he nodded and said "Alright, let's start off with the metals of your armor. The horn is comprised entirely of Obsidian Chrome Digizoid which is not only incredibly strong in the defensive department, it's also incredibly sharp as well. The rest including your wing blades is a blending of Obsidian and Blue. Blue is the lightest and incidentally the rarest alloy of Chrome Digizoid, and it provides phenomenal agility to its users, so it makes sense that most of your armor would be a combination of the two given your species. Gold Chrome probably would have fit better given your Holy Beast type, since that's the 'divine' version, but I imagine that your Lunar nature nullified that."

Luna let out a snort and said "It is just as well, Gold has always been Celestia's color, not mine."

"Indeed." Daniel said, wisely choosing to ignore the brief flash of pain in Luna's voice as she spoke. He gave her a moment before he continued "Obviously, with how much bigger you are as a Mega than an Ultimate your strength has shot through the roof, and all of that Blue Chrome Digizoid has given your speed an even more impressive boost. Looks like you can hit Mach 10 pretty easily in that form, even with all that armor on you. It looks like you went from 'Magician' class back to 'Fighter' class when you went Mega, not surprising given how your mane and tail went back to regular hair, though you DO still have access to your magic. Let's see, your kicking attack got another upgrade from High Horsepower to Mega Buck, says here it can crack a mountain in half, that'd certainly be something to see. You still have your Lunar Beam, though it's been upgraded in strength to match the level. Star Shower got bumped up to Star Bombardment and appears to now be similar to an artillery strike, able to hit multiple opponents hard enough to knock them for a loop, if not outright take them out of the fight entirely. You still have Celestial Bands as your capture technique, again upgraded to reflect your strength as a Mega. Sky Spear is now Orbital Pierce, it's damage again exponentially increased depending on how high from the target you use it, and God help whatever you hit with that thing from high orbit, you could probably go a mile or two into the ground with that thing and leave a crater to match. Needle Rain's made a reappearance now that you don't have that 'celestial' style mane, it's upgraded form is Needle Shower. Looks like it's got a two-hundred-yard attack radius and the needles can pierce through ten feet steel plates without issue. _That's_ going to come in handy down the line, though the loss of the IFF function Celestial Wave had means we're going to have to be careful with it when fighting with friendlies."

Looking from his equipment to Luna with a grin, Daniel said "I think it goes without saying that your Mega form should not be messed with."

"Indeed Daniel, I look forward to being able to reach it properly." Luna said with a matching grin. That path was a long one, but it would be well worth traveling down.

Scene Change: Fifty Years After Luna First Went Mega Digital World's Moon, Closest Point to Planet

Luna had been on Equestria's own moon several times of course, it was her closest and thus primary celestial domain after all, and seeing a planet hanging under her brought a strong sense of nostalgia even as she couldn't help but to categorize all of the differences between the two planets. After ten minutes though, she asked without looking away from the sight "So explain again why we're up here? I get that we're exploring, but you said something about wavelengths, densities and Dyson Spheres before your explanation devolved into techno jargon."

A space suited Daniel also continued watching the Digital World under them as he said "As you know, a day ago something up here caused a geological collapse. The affected area began leaking out an energy signature that contained elements that were similar to solar radiation. An hour later though the signature disappeared. Of course, just one of those things would have had me curious, but all three taken together grabbed my attention so I did a thorough scan of the moon. Really, I should have done that within the first year we arrived here but I didn't actually think there was anything up here. Rather short sighted of me in hind sight."

"Just a bit." Luna said in agreement, though she too had thought nothing about checking out the moon earlier. After all, _her_ _moon_ didn't have anything of interest except for the small amount of buildings she herself had built as a private retreat for when dealing with life on Equestria got a bit tiresome.

"Anyway," Daniel continued "The scans showed something unusual about this place, mainly that it was a lot less dense than a celestial body of this size should be. At first, I just thought that this thing was made out of a much lighter core than Earth's moon but a scan of the force of gravity it was exerting on the planet showed that it was actually _higher_ than if it had been made out of iron like Luna, never mind something lighter like Zinc. So there must be something inside this moon that was producing a high gravitonic effect."

"And because of the solar radiation you briefly detected, you think that that something is a star." Luna said in understanding.

Daniel nodded and said "Exactly, which would make this place a Dyson Sphere, which in turn means that there's a rather high chance that some _one_ is also up here, especially with how quickly the solar radiation signature disappeared again. I'd bet our solar satellite that that was a repair crew fixing a hole in whatever kind of roof they have down there."

"Which is why you wanted me to go Mega before we came up here, just in case the locals aren't friendly." Luna said.

"Exactly, I didn't know if they would send a welcoming committee as soon as we teleported up here." Daniel said with a nod before he glanced at the sensor in his hand and continued "Though I haven't picked up anything coming towards us yet."

"Well it seems that either their nearest exit point is so far away that they still haven't reached sensor range or they're remaining hidden in the hopes that we will not detect them." Luna said with a slight frown.

"Well, if they won't come to us, then we should go to them." Daniel said, hopping up onto Luna's back, her armor shifting into a saddle like form that allowed him to hook his feet into a set of depressions and hold onto an adjustable set of handlebars, a nifty little trick of her digivolution that they had discovered the first time they went flying together while she was Mega. Daniel gave her the direction and distance to where the solar radiation leak had been detected and she blasted off, only the lack of a thick enough atmosphere preventing a sonic cone forming in front of her as the lunar scape a mere dozen feet under them flashed by, a rooster tail of disturbed lunar soil kicked up in their after wash. Somehow Luna managed to detect obstacles in her path, making miniscule corrections in her flight path that still allowed them to slip around the occasional mountain that popped up seconds later.

Five minutes later, Luna went up over a fractured mountain rather than around it and slammed on the metaphorical breaks as she began doing a fifty mile per hour counterclockwise orbit over what looked like a very recent crater and as the pair of them saw the metallic sheen of flat metal at the bottom, she said "That is most definitely not natural."

"No it is not." Daniel said before he pointed at a spot on the 'north' side of the crater rim and said "Look, they've already begun the process of repairing the concealing lunar topography." Indeed, there was an inwards bulge of the rim where the surrounding rock was a subtle but still noticeably different shade. Best estimate was that they had already covered ten percent of the crater that Daniel eyeballed to be roughly a kilometer wide. Whoever was down there was doing quick work.

"Yeah, they WOAH!" Whatever Luna was going to say was cut off as she barrel rolled right, moving out of the way of what looked suspiciously like an American made MIM-23 Hawk Surface to Air missile just before it could hit her. Daniel's eyes instantly shot down the exhaust trail it had left and spotting the launcher with two more missiles on its rails called out "Luna, cloak!"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Luna said in agreement and the extremely thin atmo around them gained a slight shimmer for a moment as she cloaked then did an upwards Split S to reverse course. Just in time two, as another missile passed through right where she would have been if she had maintained course. Fortunately, the third missile remained on its rail, it's operator apparently not willing to risk wasting it on a literally astronomical shot and Luna let out a chuckle that was just the _slightest_ bit strained as she said "I guess they don't like visitors."

"Yeah well, I'm starting to not like these guys either. Especially since this isn't the first time we've dealt with them." Daniel said, his pistol in sniper mode and trained on the missile launcher.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked in confusion.

"Look at what's printed on the side of that last SAM." Daniel replied and Luna applied a magnification spell to her eyes which instantly narrowed at what they saw.

Printed in bright red along the nose of the missile was a single word: TIERFRIN.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule is on the Profile. There is also a Poll for the new roster once Flesh to Metal Version 2 gets it's last chapter written next rotation so make sure you vote on that.

I wanted to make this just one long chapter much like I did the race episodes in my Naruto Shadow Clone story, but then I thought that it would be unfair to make you guys wait that long. Better buckle in folks, this one is going to be a doozy.


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